It all depends on what type of riding you plan on doing? Trails or MX tracks?
The YFZ 450 is a great out of the box quad to have some fun on at your local MX track. It's light and extremely stable for a stock quad making the jumps, burms and whoops almost seem easy
It's also not to bad in the trails, probably still the BEST quad I've ever trail ridden. Again it's lite weight and stability plays a big part in that (i think it's somewhere around 355lbs? ). No reverse kinda sucks on any quad though but unless you get bogged down in a mudhole, you can pretty much just pick the thing up and get out of most situations.
It's designed as a race quad so the gear ratios are not exactly trail friendly, but that's where the clutch and some throttle control come into play
The Raptor 700? It's not exactly what I was expecting but i'm still very happy with it. My first ride was at a friends house and he has a old warn in MX track in his yard. What a way to brake it in?
I was impressed at how well it jumps and how stable it was sliding around the burms and corners.... but you can feel the extra 40lbs it has over the YFZ.
Reverse is nice for dead end trail riding where you need to turn around, or even if you get caught on a tree or something. it's also a useable reverse unlike the old 660 raptor, you can simply let the clutch out and off it goes without giving it any gas.
The motor and EFI system is ultra smooth. It's not a high RPM screemer like the YFZ, it just builds power and lots of torque at reasonable RPM's. I'm pretty impressed with the engine performance so far, and I've been good so far and left the stock pipe on it... for now
My only real complaint with the Raptor is the 1st to 2nd gear ratios in the transmission. 1st gear is very low, almost tractor like which is great for tight and slow trails....2nd gear is geared kinda high, it almost seems you skip the real 2nd and go to 3rd? if that makes any sence
And it kinda sucks sometimes because a lot of trails I ride are not high speed and at the same time they're not tight and knarly either
If I had to choose... It'd be a tuff choice but I would almost favor the YFZ450. I've always said if the YFZ had reverse, it would be the PERFECT trail/MX quad
Plus the thing just has a really cool and agressive look to it.
I've probably averaged 30% MX tracks and 70% trail riding with my YFZ so that's the reason I wanted to give the new Raptor a try. With that 30/70 ratio, I'm thinking I will enjoy the Raptor a lot more for the riding I do (mostly because of reverse)
Flip that ratio to 70% mx and 30% trails, YFZ all the way..
Now that my R1 has sold, I'm not overly concerned about letting the YFZ go, it's not costing me anything to sit there and be ready when the local MX tracks open up again
There's a lot of legal riding but for now, you'll have to do some driving. There is hope that there will be legal riding in RI in the near future as well.
We all have our riding areas that are "tollerated" but not legal, keep them out of public viewing please and use the PM system